The present invention relates to internal combustion engines, and more particularly to a clamp for fixedly mounting on the engine a remote control cable that controls the speed of the engine.
The speed of small internal combustion engines employed with lawn and garden equipment, such as lawn mowers, is typically controlled by a remote speed control cable having one end connected to a remote speed control lever movable by an operator and its other end connected to a speed control lever on the engine. Such remote control cables generally employ a control wire slidably contained in a surrounding casing. The casing may be metal, plastic, and/or combinations thereof depending upon the particular application.
In the past, the lower end of the speed control cable was attached to the engine by first inserting the control wire into a hole in the end of the engine speed control lever and then mounting the end of the cable casing to the engine with a casing clamp. typically, this casing clamp is a metal C-shaped member having an opening formed through its web portion for receiving a screw that is threaded into a bore on an engine component. Thus, as the screw was tightened, the casing clamp would merely sandwich the control cable between the web portion of the C-shaped clamp and the engine component. Such clamps were oftentimes overtightened during assembly, which crushes the cable jacket or casing, thus preventing sliding of the cable wire within the jacket.
Another type of casing clamp utilized a metal block having a semi-circular shaped cable receiving slot formed along its inner surface. This clamp also utilized a screw extending through the metal block to attach the cable to a plastic fuel tank by sandwiching the cable against the side of the fuel tank. Typically, this casing clamp was utilized with plastic cable jackets or casings to prevent crushing of the casing or jacket. However, since the cable casing is plastic and the fuel tank is plastic, this type of clamp necessitated the use of a metal plate positioned between the cable and fuel tank, resulting in a threepart clamp, namely, the metal block, the metal plate and the screw. Such clamps involved assembly problems due to the need to properly position the three components of the clamp during assembly. Additionally, the plastic fuel tank required a tapped bore for receiving the screw which necessitated an insert molding process, thus increasing the cost of the fuel tank. Further, during assembly, if the screw is over-torqued by an electric or air drive tool and the threads of the tapped insert were stripped, the entire fuel tank needed to be discarded and replaced.